INFLAMMAGING – buzz word or a real concern? 

I know, I know. It’s totally the buzz word at the moment. But it makes me think. I look at my dad and think about how he must feel. He’s a big man, broad and tall. His joints hurt, he struggles to get far nowadays and I catch him looking at the sheep wishing he was the one throwing them around and doing it better than us! He’s frustrated with himself, and us for not doing it right.  He’s 85 years old and lacks energy and doesn’t want to ‘slow down’. 

I hear him. I wouldn’t want to either. I’m a chip off the old block! Ageing can be daunting, terrifying and sad, frustrating and painful. I really don’t want that, no-one does. So is it just an age thing or can we do something to prevent this?

There are several different ways to look at ageing. The obvious way is to consider your chronological age, which is determined by your birthday. However, no-one wants to live for a long time but not enjoy their life. Another way to look at ageing is to look at health span. Where your biological age determines your health span. Many people know someone in their 90’s who still dances, cooks, drives, reads books and thoroughly enjoys being alive. Unfortunately, in the 21st century this isn’t the norm but an anomaly. 

Research shows that typically, we spend the last 20% of our lives in poor health, meaning if we live to 80, we may live to be 60 in good health and the last 20 years of our life, we’re in poor health and on medications. The truth is that 80% of people over 65 have one or more chronic illness, and it’s getting worse.

Heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, dementia, not to mention frailty and disability, these are consequences of abnormal processes. Insulin resistance, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, alterations in the microbiome, oxidative stress are all concepts familiar within functional medicine that are now being described as the hallmarks of aging. This is apparently what to expect as we get older, to accept being diseased. I don’t think we should be accepting of this, especially when there is so much we can do to reverse this. 

The good news is that science shows you can transform your health span and how you age in the future. Your biological age can accelerate or reverse at any point in time based on the inputs of your biology.  Importantly we need to know what factors increase our biological age and how to reduce them. Inflammation levels are accelerated by toxin load, infections, allergens, stress, poor diet, bad sleep habits and lack of movement.

So perhaps what we should be looking at, is not just on how to improve our health but also how to reduce these influential factors to lower our inflammation levels and therefore their affects on ageing. 

Number one on the menu should be an anti inflammatory diet. The people living in the longevity zones, the Blue zones such as Sardinia, Greece, and Italy predominantly follow an anti inflammatory diet pattern. The bases of many age-related diseases like arthritis, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, depression, cancer and Alzheimers is inflammation. Generally, an anti inflammatory diet is an eating pattern that is based on whole foods, lots of colourful vegetables and fruit, and a balance of protein, wholegrain carbs and healthy fats at each meal. It also contains low amounts of ultra processed foods that are high in refined carbohydrates, trans fats, processed meals and excess alcohol. People in the Blue zones also only eat until they are 80% full, very different to our westernised ways. 

Whilst looking at consuming the right whole foods and thus increasing our nutrient levels, we should also take a look at other important factors which affect our inflammation levels. The balance of hormones in our bodies, our natural light exposure, air quality, water, movement, rest, relaxation, sleep, connection, purpose, all those things are critical for activating longevity pathways. We need to be thinking holistically about our health and our ageing, and look at the bigger, longer picture. If you’re suffering from any of  the ‘ageing diseases’, start working on these factors to reduce the longterm impact and inflammageing! 

If you’re interested to know more and would like some guidance please get in touch. I’m pretty keen on this stuff! 

Let food be thy medicine  – Hippocrates.

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it – Plato